The Jack Benny Program

The Jack Benny Program
Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, and Eddie Anderson (Rochester) in a group portrait
Other namesThe Jack Benny Show
The Canada Dry Program
The Chevrolet Program
The General Tire Revue
The Jell-O Program
The Grape Nuts Flakes Program
The Lucky Strike Program
GenreComedy
Running time30 minutes
Country of originUnited States
Language(s)English
Home stationNBC (Blue) (05/02/32–10/26/32)
CBS (10/30/32–1/26/33)
NBC (Red) (03/03/33–09/28/34)
NBC (Blue) (10/14/34–06/21/36)
NBC (Red) (10/04/36–12/26/48)
CBS (01/02/49–05/22/55)
TV adaptationsThe Jack Benny Program (19501965)
StarringJack Benny
Mary Livingstone
Eddie Anderson
Phil Harris
Dennis Day
Kenny Baker
Mel Blanc
Frank Nelson
Artie Auerbach
Bea Benaderet
Sara Berner
Joseph Kearns
Sheldon Leonard
AnnouncerDon Wilson
Written byHarry Conn
Al Boasberg
William Morrow
Edmund Beloin
Hugh Wedlock Jr.
Howard Snyder
George Balzer
Sam Perrin
Milt Josefsberg
John Tackaberry
Al Gordon
Hal Goldman
Produced byHilliard Marks (1946–'55)
Original releaseMay 2, 1932 –
May 22, 1955
No. of episodes931
Opening themeLove in Bloom/The Yankee Doodle Boy
Ending themeHooray for Hollywood
"The J & M Stomp"

The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio and television comedy series. The show ran for over three decades, from 1932 to 1955 on radio, and from 1950 to 1965 on television. It won numerous awards, including the 1959 and 1961 Emmy Awards for Best Comedy Series, and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.[1]

Throughout his career, Jack Benny played the same character: A pompous, vain, and stingy man who played the violin badly but was convinced of his own talent. Although technically the star of his show, Benny was constantly the butt of jokes from his cast members, including Mary Livingstone (Sayde Marks Benny, his real-life wife); Phil Harris, his band leader; Kenny Baker or Dennis Day, his tenors; Don Wilson, his portly announcer; and Rochester Van Jones (Eddie Anderson), his African American valet.

As radio historian John Dunning explains, "Unlike Bob Hope, Jack Benny didn't tell jokes. On his show, Jack was the joke. Everything revolved around him and his comic foibles, with Benny serving as 'straight man.' The other characters on the show were the comedians, making wisecracks, remarks, and asides about Benny's stinginess, his vanity, or his lousy violin-playing."[1]

  1. ^ a b Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 355–363. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved December 19, 2023.